Pages 177-179
Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House: Volume 24, Addenda, 1605-1668. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1976.
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Citation:
October 1609
| Bonds. | |
| (1) 1609, October 4. | Bond signed by Charles Brooke, of Templecombe, co. Somerset, in which he undertakes to discharge a debt of £30 to Thomas Finet, of London, "within ffortie daies next after the first and next retorne of the saide Thomas Ffinett out of or from the cytty of Constantinople in the country or region now or heretofore called Thrace in Grecia in the parts beyond the seas into this realme of England". The bond is witnessed by Edmond Forrest and Herbert Cadman, and is endorsed to the effect that the debt was repaid on May 4, 1613. |
| (2) 1609, November 10. |
A similar bond witnessed by Robert
Woodcroste, and by Thomas Franckland and Robert Holland,
scriveners. 2 pp. (Bills 654.) |
| Thomas Marchant to the Earl of Salisbury. | |
| [? c. October, 1609]. |
He is of the Island of Guernsey, and has
been detained in the Gatehouse, where he was committed by
Salisbury, for the past eight weeks without being examined. He
requests that he be brought before Salisbury or the Privy Council.—
Undated. ½ p. (P. 854.) |
| [A certain Marchant appears in the list of prisoners at the Gatehouse in October, 1609. See Cal. S.P. Dom., 1603–10, p. 555.] | |
| Thomas Marchant, the elder, to the Earl of Salisbury. | |
| [? c. October, 1609]. | About Christmas after the capture of Cadiz, when he was trading at St. Jean de Luz, there arrived at his lodging three seminary priests who had fled from England with a packet of letters. He employed all means possible to have them arrested and examined by the Governor of Bayonne, and to that end he communicated his intention to Thomas Oliver who was on familiar terms with Henry Palmer, then newly come from England on the late Queen Elizabeth's affairs. Oliver, under semblance of assisting petitioner, abused his confidence and treacherously conveyed the priests into Spain. Moreover, knowing of Marchant's purpose to visit Spain, he passed the information on to the King and Council of Spain, so that when petitioner arrived in that country he was seized and imprisoned as a spy, and shared the same gaol as Captain Gifford, Captain Boord, Roger Middleton, William Frye, John Stanley and Anthony Monday. |
|
Petitioner's factor, a Frenchman named Nicholas Blancke, then
proceeded to devise means for defrauding him, and secured the
cooperation of John Stanley and Anthony Monday, who swore
that he was a spy. He was only saved from execution by the
intervention of "many noble frends" and the expenditure of much
money which ruined his estate. He also had to promise to disclose
the names of those who organised trade from Spain to England.
He tried to minimise the importance of such intelligence by revealing only the names of a few Dutchmen, but he was detected and
condemned to the galleys in which he spent five years. During
this time he was often solicited by the Admiral of Spain to engineer
the betrayal of Guernsey Castle and to act against the security of
England, but he adamantly refused to do so. He wrote several
letters which he planned to send to Salisbury by a fellow prisoner,
John Bedford, now of Limehouse. "And having provided fyles
for Bedfords cheines that hee might escape by swymminge, but
Bedford not daringe to stand to his first resolution, they weare
driven to burne the letters and to cast the fyles over boorde, for
had they beene found or perceaved, yt had bene present death."
Later petitioner was conveyed from Seville to Madrid in chains,
while Stanley and Monday left for England to discuss the possibility of an expedition against their own country. In view of the
information which he has sent to Salisbury concerning his tribulations, the King's service, and the younger brother of Sir Thomas
Leighton, he begs to be discharged from further attendance upon
Salisbury so that he may deal with his own pressing affairs.—
Undated. ¾ p. (197. 21.) |
|
| John Woodgreen to the Earl of Salisbury. | |
| [? After October, 1609]. |
Petitioner lives in Frendsbury, co. Kent,
and is the guardian of Elizabeth Girdler, daughter of John Girdler,
of Cobham, deceased. The Girdler family have been tenants of a
small piece of land in Cobham called Betts and Bettings at 10/a year, which land is now in Salisbury's possession. (fn. 1) Since it is the
best part of the legacy left by the father for the child's maintenance,
petitioner asks that Salisbury allow the child to continue in possession of the property at the same rent.—Undated. ½ p. (P. 479.) |